Millers Chairman – ‘It Hurts’

Rotherham United’s Chairman, Denis Coleman, spoke to the Official Site after the Millers were relegated to League Two this evening.

‘It hurts to be relegated. But I am sure we will bounce back. We think we have chosen the right man in Mark Robins as manager. He knows that he will have to do some wheeling and dealing because there is not a lot of money at the club.

‘We’ve been up against it all season. What you have to remember is that last March we were only hours away from going under. We have a job to do here and we all have to pull together. Hopefully, we will bounce back and get back up as quickly as possible.

‘We are playing catch up from the last twenty seasons. We are playing in a stadium that is like a museum which is a disgrace. We are working hard and all we can do is keep plugging away at it.

‘We have already talked to Mark and we will be sitting down with him and talking about who he wants to keep and who he wants to bring in. We have contracts to sort out for the first team and youth players.

‘We have one or two players who have relegation clauses in their contracts and it will be up to them if they want to take that option and also upto Mark as to who he wants to keep and we have to do our best to persuade them to stay.

‘This season has cost us a lot of money and we needed the money from the sale of Lee Williamson and Will Hoskins, and anyway, they wanted to leave. Relegation has cost us the best part of half a million pounds – we were up against it from the start with the points deduction. The club was in trouble not because of the board or the players – it is time the football league look at what they have done. They are supposed to be there to help but deducting points is not helping. We have got sympathy from every club we have spoken too – they all think it is wrong. But, what has happened to us will happen to other clubs.

‘Without the supporters coming through the gates and putting money into the club we will be doomed – we need them to keep doing this. If the supporters want a club they have to be prepared to get behind it.

‘As a supporter I want to get the club back up as soon as possible. The sooner we get back up the sooner we can start to plan for the Championship.’